A Few Random Pictures From Rome

After the Quattro (four) Fontana (fountains) we walked down the Via del Quirinal, with brief stops in a couple of parks to look at statues of people we've never heard of, and then we came the Presidential Palace, which used to house Popes and the Kings.  Quirinal Palace is only open occasionally for tours, conducted solely in Italian, so I didn't even bother to look into doing one.

(Editor: I'm shocked.  Somehow you successfully translated Quattro Fontana but you didn't want a whole tour in Italian?   Writer: Uh, correct.  Editor: And I'm sure the people of the statues have never heard of you either.  Writer: To be fair to me, they are dead.  If they weren't, who knows, ya know?)

The photos are backwards from the order I loaded them, but that's what the evil photo spirits will do to you.  Que sera sera.

Random pic of The Spanish

Steps.  I failed to add this to

an earlier post, so here it is.

Across from Quirinal Palace

Guarding the

Presidential Palace

Some dude in Villa Carlo Alberto al

Quirinale Park.  There's a good chance

this is Carlo himself (looks it up).  And

it is. Turns out his son grew up to be

King Vittorio Emanuele, the first king

of united Italy.  Dad was no Carlos

Alberto, famed for being Brazil's captain

when they won the 1970 World Cup.

He later joined the NY Cosmos and

played with fellow Brazilian Pele,

helping the team win two NASL titles.

This is the Monument

celebrating the Bicentennial

of the Carabinieri, one of the

2,000 types of law

enforcement in Italy.  Their

bicentennial was

celebrated in 2014.  Besides

being one of the coolest

names ever for a law

enforcement  group, the

Carabinieri is the Italian

national police force,

organized as a military unit

and charged with maintaining

public security (they love

breaking up riots!) and they

assist with local police.

Here's a different angle on the

Carabinieri statue.  Their personality

really comes out in this photo, no?

This is not the branch of Italian police

who investigated the Amanda Knox

situation, so we had no worries

about getting this close to them.

This (working) Bernini fountain is

near the Capuchin monastery in

Piazza Barberini.  No relation to

Vinnie Barberino.

Called the Triton Fountain,

here is a look at the whole

statue.